The CIA’s hacking effort has been so powerful and effective, the leaks show, that it includes the weaponization of exploits used against products such as the iPhone, Android phones, Samsung TVs, and Microsoft Windows. This means any of these devices can be used as spying mechanisms at any given time.

But perhaps most troubling is the revelation that the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal over time. That includes viruses, malware, trojans, malware remote control systems, and the previously mentioned weaponized exploits. In so many words, this means the US government has handed over the key to the most intimate secrets of every single one of us to anyone with access to these lost tools. By allowing the CIA to grow so absolutely powerful, we also allowed the agency to be absolutely careless with our own lives.

What have we learned from this? That regardless of how detached we may seem from politics, its influence and power grows as we refrain from restricting it — even if most of those involved aren’t quite aware of the mechanisms that allow for this expansion.

The CIA’s hacking effort has been so powerful and effective, the leaks show, that it includes the weaponization of exploits used against products such as the iPhone, Android phones, Samsung TVs, and Microsoft Windows. This means any of these devices can be used as spying mechanisms at any given time.

But perhaps most troubling is the revelation that the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal over time. That includes viruses, malware, trojans, malware remote control systems, and the previously mentioned weaponized exploits. In so many words, this means the US government has handed over the key to the most intimate secrets of every single one of us to anyone with access to these lost tools. By allowing the CIA to grow so absolutely powerful, we also allowed the agency to be absolutely careless with our own lives.

What have we learned from this? That regardless of how detached we may seem from politics, its influence and power grows as we refrain from restricting it — even if most of those involved aren’t quite aware of the mechanisms that allow for this expansion.

As economist Murray Rothbard wrote in his pivotal essay, Anatomy of the State, the government is entirely wired to be “that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area.” In other words, the state maintains its power through the “use of compulsion; that is, by the use and the threat of the jailhouse and the bayonet...”

But, as Rothbard notes, “the miasma of myth has lain so long over State activity” that many continue to refuse to see the coercion and lack of moral legitimacy that lies at the foundation of the state. Consequently, government is powerful because we, the individuals, have allowed it to have sole guardianship over our property — including self-ownership — and freedoms.

Once government has total control over every basic aspect of our lives, those within government see no boundaries. Why? Because the burden of self-censorship or even personal responsibility doesn’t lie with the individual any longer. Once the government employee crosses over, stepping into a world where he’s protected by an invisible authority, he is no longer a person who is led by the same morals that guided him before he assumed this position — he’s now a bureaucrat. And as such, he now knows he will no longer have to be accountable for his actions.

What does that have to do with the latest revelations on the CIA? When a lack of personal responsibility meets the needs of the monopolistic State, the individual loses any sovereignty he has over his own life. The government worker becomes a thirsty member of the State, always looking for ways to undermine freedom while the so-called private individual becomes just another government enabler under its control.

Do articles by Rothbard or other paid libertarians ever get around to mentioning the close collaboration of the corporatocracy with government agencies like the CIA or NSA?

Worth reminding everyone that almost all of the CIA's internet espionage and development of hacking tools is not done by their agents! It's the work of highly paid leeches known as "defense" or "security" contractors. After the first day of the Ed Snowden saga, I can't recall a single MSM source mentioning that he never worked directly for the NSA/but was hired by their private contractor-Booz-Allen Hamilton. The agency and the contractor...like so many others in Washington, are revolving doors for the top management-who cycle from inside to back to the contractor than back to the agency over and over again...kind of like Larry Summers and banking!

But, if the libertarians are able to keep moving this strategy ever further to completely deregulate government watchdog agencies, then their financiers...like Koch Industries, have less government and less taxes standing in their way against fleecing the population of everything they've got!

Rothbard was a big David Duke supporter who believed in separating the races.
He was a leading Libertarian Economist, a philosophy which never really got off the ground, because it's flaws are so readily apparent.
He was a servant to bad ideas. There is a reason that Libertarianism has never moved beyond the fringe, it's because it doesn't work, never has, never will.

Rothbard was a big David Duke supporter who believed in separating the races.
He was a leading Libertarian Economist, a philosophy which never really got off the ground, because it's flaws are so readily apparent.
He was a servant to bad ideas. There is a reason that Libertarianism has never moved beyond the fringe, it's because it doesn't work, never has, never will.

You're right, except that libertarian thinking has moved way beyond the fringes today, and became standard economic dogma thanks to the generously funded-Chicago School and all of the well-funded libertarian think tanks, policy analysts, bloggers and politicians-like Paul Ryan promoting libertarian ideology in Congress.
If bad ideas get lots and lots of money, they get broadcast so widely they appear normal to average viewers.